Craig Mathieson

Thu 3rd Dec, 2009 in Features

I last spoke to Craig Mathieson over three years ago whilst interning for Melbourne independent label Rubber Records. I was working on the publicity campaign for an Australian artist called Gareth Skinner and had spent weeks trying to get a somewhat innocuous record reviewed, anywhere, anyhow. Craig had been the first journalist to return my call, and as an endearingly naïve twenty-one year old I was mildly offended when he curtly declined my request for a review.

It would be the first of countless rejections and unanswered emails I’d encounter on that campaign, which provided me with an expeditious introduction into the world of music criticism and consequently taught me the most invaluable lesson of my career – there is no room to take things personally in this business.

That said, I must admit that I am relieved to find Mathieson far more amiable then during our last pithy interaction. He is politely switching off his computer monitor so that we are not interrupted throughout our interview – a sure sign that I am talking to someone familiar with the awkward circumstance of phone interviews with easily distracted musicians on seemingly endless publicity trails. I appreciate the gesture.

Mathieson is on somewhat of a publicity trail himself, having just released his third book Playlisted: Everything You Need To Know About Australian Music Right Now. Playlisted comes nearly a decade after his last tome The Sell-In: How The Music Business Seduced Alternative Rock, a book which he admits drained him of any desire to write about music for some time.

” The Sell-In… was a really tough book. There was a lot of interviews and probably a year of solid work…It was a real slog, I mean literally I had to stop writing after that book came out and I was completely frazzled. It was like the end of the first half of my career of writing about music.”

Having spent the first half of his career doing “the Rolling Stone travelling with the band thing”, Playlisted reveals Mathieson’s growing desire to critique music in the most traditional sense. “At a certain point I just became far more interested in recorded music than live music. I’m much more interested in trying to understand a career or even just understand certain songs – there is a world of mystery inside a simple three minute song. I’m more interested in the decoding of all those things now.”

Craig Mathieson is at the top of the music criticism game in a country where getting paid to write about music is a privilege bestowed upon a lucky few. He has enjoyed a career many aspiring journos can only dream of, which he admits was achieved through harnessing “frightening levels of ambition” at a young age and the occasional bit of luck.

Moving to Melbourne from rural Victoria at age 17 to study journalism, Mathieson started out in the business (like so many before) contributing to street press. This eventually led to a move North to work as a staff writer for Drum Media and from there came Rolling Stone, Juice Magazine and fifteen-odd years of living the archetypal – œrock n roll’ dream, collecting what I can only assume must be some of this country’s most enthralling dinner party stories.

It is this excess of experience that makes Playlisted such a compelling read. By his own admission, Mathieson can at times exude a degree of pomposity in his writing; however Playlisted is a genuinely relaxed and interesting discussion of modern Australian music. There is certainly a hefty dose of opinion, but not a single whiff of the pompous to be detected.

From Kylie Minogue’s successful career as the penultimate fembot to our nation’s deep-seated suspicions of Luke Steele, the book takes the reader through a play list of thirty songs and artists, dissecting careers and lyrics while answering some of life’s great mysteries, such as the source of the instrumental solo in The Church’s 1988 classic Under The Milkyway.

Whilst reading the book, I found that the chapters I enjoyed most were invariably those dedicated to artists that don’t typically bleep on my musical radar. The pieces about Delta Goodrem, The Veronicas and INXS were all notable highlights for me and it seems that I wasn’t alone in this experience. In a blog entry on his website, Craig notes that initial feedback about the book has revealed the essay about Michael Hutchence to be a favourite of many.

The chapter discusses the rise and fall of INXS and propositions that Hutchence may well have been this countries last true rock-star. I enquire as to why he thinks this chapter in particular has resonated with so many people. “I think there is just an emotional truth there and I think we all in way can identify with that feeling of being forgotten. I think Michael Hutchence is forgotten and underappreciated and there were many ludicrous things that surrounded him and the band. There was also something genuinely special as well. That when it worked it really worked.”

This handling of all his subjects as multi-faceted artists – whose music is worth discussing whether they are pop star, rock behemoth or underground hero – ensures Playlisted never feels too full of itself. It also challenges what I believe to be many people’s understanding of critical writing – that is, for a critic to really – œsay’ something they must either gush about or deride their subject. This is certainly a technique that I was once guilty of and a trend that I often note in CD reviews in this country. I enquire whether Mathieson was also guilty of this as a young writer.

“When people start out most critics are either full of praise or disdain for a record and when you are young you think life is the same way and neither of them is like that – music isn’t like that and life isn’t like that. I was totally the same way. It was either praise or pan. Eventually you sort of realise there is a whole world in there and you sort of have to pick things out and figure out how they might tie together and try to understand other people’s worlds. Sometimes a record is like a detective novel or something and you are trying to solve it.”

The book doesn’t just discuss individuals, it also addresses greater themes using different artists to help articulate certain points; the changing nature of Australia’s independent scene (Underground Lovers), the significance of retaining a healthy live music scene (Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and most notably that all-consuming humdinger – What defines the – œAustralian Sound’.

We touch briefly on this during the interview and I ask Craig how much he thinks this sound has developed from something that for so many years been defined by males, rock and a solid four-four beat. It comes as no surprise that he believes that this illusive – œsound’ is gradually changing, however, interestingly he muses that the “next time we produce a Nick Cave or a Tim Rogers in this country they will probably be an MC or a hip-hop producer; that is all sort of looming.”

Given Mathieson’s history as a co-owner of Australian music website Mess + Noise , our conversation gradually shifts from his book to this century’s equivalent of – œdid video kill the radio star’ – is the internet killing journalism?

Mathieson is circumspect in his musings. “I’m happy for it all to co-exist. And there are certainly some fantastic writers who wouldn’t have been heard in this country if it wasn’t for the internet. It’s like anything: you get some great things and you get some poor things, you know? I think the good outweighs the bad. Another thing as much as the writing we need more good editors, there are so much more people in need of direction and help and they need that leg up.”

I note that as the internet has opened up the floodgates for every Tom, Dick and Mary to start writing about everything from what they just ate for lunch to what music they are digging, surely the inherent nature of music criticism (or any criticism for that matter), must be shifting.

“Critics should just be there to inspire or shine a light or make you think twice. There are younger critics who even if they are just writing on their blogs they create this sort of conversation and they make discoveries and you get caught up in their discoveries. Anyone who can write and communicate something about music I think will always have a use. How it is used will probably change but you know if you can get across to people what is different or what might matter to them about a piece of music then there will always be a place for that.”

As we wind up our lengthy conversation and I brace myself for three hours worth of transcribing, I ask Craig for one piece of advice for budding writers of FL who may be looking to take this old writing thing seriously one day. “Just keep writing. Just do it and do it again and find every avenue you can. Don’t expect to make a living for maybe ever. To be honest, I’m still surprised I make a living, but nothing can beat writing 5000 words in a week when you’re 21. That might lead to 500 words you write at 25 being really good, but you just have to keep doing it.”